Department of Radiation Oncology, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia2Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

2

Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia3Department of Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia4Department of Biostatistics and.

3

Hamburg Center for Health Economics, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany6Center for Gerontology and Health Care Research, School of Public Health, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island.

4

Center for Health Policy Research, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire.

Department of Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway12Department of Oncology, Oslo University Hospital and University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.

8

Hamburg Center for Health Economics, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany.

9

Department of Health Management and Health Economics, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway14Oslo Centre for Biostatistics and Epidemiology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.

10

Department of Public and Occupational Health, EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research and Cancer Center Amsterdam, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

11

National End of Life Care Intelligence Network, Public Health England, London.

12

Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

Abstract

IMPORTANCE:

Differences in utilization and costs of end-of-life care among developed countries are of considerable policy interest.

OBJECTIVE:

To compare site of death, health care utilization, and hospital expenditures in 7 countries: Belgium, Canada, England, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, and the United States.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS:

Retrospective cohort study using administrative and registry data from 2010. Participants were decedents older than 65 years who died with cancer. Secondary analyses included decedents of any age, decedents older than 65 years with lung cancer, and decedents older than 65 years in the United States and Germany from 2012.

RESULTS:

The United States (cohort of decedents aged >65 years, N = 211,816) and the Netherlands (N = 7216) had the lowest proportion of decedents die in acute care hospitals (22.2.% and 29.4%, respectively). A higher proportion of decedents died in acute care hospitals in Belgium (N = 21,054; 51.2%), Canada (N = 20,818; 52.1%), England (N = 97,099; 41.7%), Germany (N = 24,434; 38.3%), and Norway (N = 6636; 44.7%). In the last 180 days of life, 40.3% of US decedents had an intensive care unit admission compared with less than 18% in other reporting nations. In the last 180 days of life, mean per capita hospital expenditures were higher in Canada (US $21,840), Norway (US $19,783), and the United States (US $18,500), intermediate in Germany (US $16,221) and Belgium (US $15,699), and lower in the Netherlands (US $10,936) and England (US $9342). Secondary analyses showed similar results.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE:

Among patients older than 65 years who died with cancer in 7 developed countries in 2010, end-of-life care was more hospital-centric in Belgium, Canada, England, Germany, and Norway than in the Netherlands or the United States. Hospital expenditures near the end of life were higher in the United States, Norway, and Canada, intermediate in Germany and Belgium, and lower in the Netherlands and England. However, intensive care unit admissions were more than twice as common in the United States as in other countries.